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malgré

Etymology and origin of the French word malgré

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
c. 1165, Benoît de Sainte-Maure (mal gré)
Ultimate origins
Proto-Italic (*malo-)French (gré)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin malus
French mal
French malgré
French malheur
French malheureux

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /mal.ɡʁe/[1]

Forms

malgré[1] Old and Middle French maugré (1176–81, Chrétien de Troyes), usual until the 16th century, malgré is a remaking after mal (14th–15th century).[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is a compound from French mal (“bad”) + gré (“liking, will”), literally “ill will”.[2][4][6][1][7] gré is from Latin grātum, the neuter of grātus (“pleasing”).[5] The regular form “maugré” was remade as “malgré” to mark the contrast with “bon gré”; it survives in maugréer (1279).[5][2]

Cognate with Italian malgrado, Catalan malgrat and Old Occitan malgrat.[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie (about 1165) mal gré means “against someone's will”; the Châtelain de Coucy writes maugré eux vous ai mon cuer doné “in spite of them I have given you my heart”.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Malgré lor denz “despite all their efforts” is found about 1225, and malgré que j'en aie “in spite of myself” about 1250.[2] The sense “in spite of (something)”, with a noun for a thing, appears in Corneille (1650); malgré tout is in Littré.[2][3] Malgré que “although” is attested from 1787, when Féraud condemned it; it is still criticised by purists.[2][8] The malgré-nous were the men of Alsace and Moselle forcibly conscripted into the German army in the Second World War.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 1165 – Mal gré, Roman de Troie.[2]
  • 1176–81 – Maugré, Chrétien de Troyes.[2]
  • c. 1225 – Malgré lor denz.[2]
  • c. 1250 – Malgré que il en ait.[2]
  • 1279 – Maugréer.[5]
  • 1650 – “In spite of (something)”, Corneille.[2]
  • 1787 – Malgré que “although”, condemned by Féraud.[2]

Meanings

Preposition

  1. despite, in spite of: il est sorti malgré la pluie.[3][1]
  2. Against the will of: malgré son père, malgré moi, against my will; unintentionally.[9][1]
  3. Malgré tout: all the same, nevertheless.[9][3]
  4. Malgré que + subjunctive: although (criticised); (literary) malgré que j'en aie, in spite of myself.[8][2]

Word family

  • malgré-nous
  • gré
  • maugréer
  • bon gré mal gré

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 252b
  8. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
Cite this entry

“Malgré.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/malgr%C3%A9. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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